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The Incredible Angry Black Woman

Race & Ethnicity Blog Nosh Magazine{Originally Published on The Black Snob}

Are you angry? Would we not like you when you’re angry?

I got into a discussion with a friend about male/female relationships while I was in Washington, D.C. and we were discussing the Obamas. He saw Michelle Obama, the First Lady, as the dominating figure in the relationship due to the fact that the president sometimes defers to her in his speeches or references her, saying he discussed things with her or so on. After listening to him for a bit, I pointed out that often the Obamas are more of a marital Rorschach test that says more about us than them, that no one can actually know another person’s marriage but the two people in it and that often we are taking our own experiences, wants, desires and fears and projecting them upon the First Family. But while he said he “liked” Michelle, he did see her as the quintessential “Angry Black Woman.”

Oh. That heifer again.

All my life I’ve heard many things about this woman. The finger snapping, neck cracking, fussin’ feuding and fighting, pissed off, scary as all get out, crazy, angry black woman. And while I’ve known a few black women who may qualify as angry or may have a chip on their shoulder a lot of this is much more complicated than a simple “she’s a crazy ABW.”

When you’ve been robbed of your femininity (which is sometimes the case with black women) due to a society that historically didn’t view you as a woman or, let’s say, a woman worth being chivalrous to (see Truth, Sojourner) you get a real limited amount of things you can do to get attention. I’ve known countless black women and men who grew up in households were parents and other adults honestly could have cared less if you had a bad day and frowned upon any crying, fussing, moaning or complaining. Suck it up, is practically the national pastime. But the one emotion that is almost always acceptable is anger. Your parents get mad. Your friends get mad. You get mad. Everyone is allowed to get mad. For some people crying is perceived as a weakness, but if you’re one “not to take no shit off of nobody” well, that will get you accolades and props and pats on the back. We reward strength in our community, in our society. Often anger is confused with strength.



That One Black Kid

race-ethnicity-badge{Originally published by Keith Knight at K Chronicles}

oneblackkid



The “New” Black Family?

Race & Ethnicity Blog Nosh Magazine{Originally published on Mischief Makers}

I am sure we have all seen and or heard all the ridiculous amount of rhetoric floating around about The Obamas and what they represent.

I have seen a good half dozen, at least, articles about how the Obamas are painting a vibrant healthy image of the Black family for Americans and the world. You know, the new Black Family.

HOLD ON!! WHO ARE YOU CALLING NEW? I only know of healthy black families. I have lived my thirty something years and have only been acquainted with and have seen/known of/associated with hundreds, if not, thousands of nuclear, healthy, hard working black and brown families. These families more times than not come complete with a mother and father who both work hard to raise their children properly and to be earnest contributing members of society. Most of my family and friends are not dealing with substance abuse problems, abusing the social welfare system, are not in and out of jail or struggling with joblessness and being uneducated. To the contrary, most are educated, have extreme high level of morals and ideals; and expectations for themselves and their children. They are like most Americans of the lighter skinned-hue. What is all this fuss about?

I feel like I am being painted like a rare vintage species in the media sometimes. No really, I am perplexed that in 2009, the middle class black family with no outward signs of pathology or dysfunction is still considered an anomoly.

I shouldn’t act so indignant. The imagery of black people in television and movies is still quite distorted and what can one really expect of the middle American who lives in a town with no diversity? Notwithstanding, the idea and concept of a healthy black family being abnormal is still quite disturbing.

Not too too long ago, during my college years, I became used to having to educate my classmates about what life was like having the absence of skin privilege. It was a task many black and brown people undertook for the sake of contributing to the educational experience. That is one of the stalwart positions behind diversity in the Higher Education system after all, isn’t it? –that students of varying backgrounds and of different cultures and identities would be able to interact and learn about one another, and realize, sooner hopefully than later, that they (we) are the same after all.

I do know at some point during law school, I decided that it was an unfair burden for me to have to educate Whites about Blacks and life as a Black person in America and that I no longer wanted to play that game. I was there to learn and get an education and I didn’t like being straddled with the burden of representing my entire race. When there was the topic of civil rights, constitutional wrongs, criminal procedure, I had to defend and educate the experience of Blacks and bear the weight of the pressure of making sure my classmates got it right and understood “where I was coming from”…And here we are having it resurface but on such a larger stage with so many more people watching!



I Hate Your Politics

Politics Blog Nosh Magazine{Originally published at Whatever}

I hate your politics.

No, I don’t know what they are. And no, I probably don’t know who you are, either. Really, those two points are immaterial (no offense). As it turns out about, about 46% of you are liberal, 46% of you are conservative, and the rest of you just want your guns, drugs and brothels (here in the US, we call them folks “libertarians”).

Each of you carries baggage from your political affiliation, and all of that baggage has a punky smell to it, like one of your larger species of rodent crawled in and expired in your folded underwear. Listening to any of you yammer on about the geopolitical situation is enough to make one want to melt down one’s dental fillings with a beeswax candle and then jam an ice pick into the freshly-exposed nerve, just to have something else to think about. It’s not so much that politics brings out the worst in people than it is that the worst in people goes looking for something to do, and that usually ends up being politics. It’s either that or setting fires in trashcans.

In the spirit of fairness, and of completeness, let me go down the list and tell you what I hate about each major branch of political thinking.

Liberals: The stupidest and weakest members of the political triumvirate, they allowed conservatives to turn their name into a slur against them, exposing them as the political equivalent of the kid who lets the school bully pummel him with his own fists (Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself). Liberals champion the poor and the weak but do it in such condescendingly bureaucratic ways that the po’ illedumacated Cleti would rather eat their own shotguns than associate with the likes of them. Famously humorless and dour, probably because for a really good liberal, everything is political, and you just can’t joke about things like that.

Defensive and peevish even when they’re right. Under the impression that people in politics should play fair, which is probably why they get screwed as often as they do (nb: 2000 Presidential election). Feel guilty about the freedoms their political positions allow them, which is frankly idiotic. Liberals are politically able to have all sorts of freaky mammal sex but typically don’t; good liberal foreplay is a permission slip and three layers of impermeable barriers. The only vaguely liberal person we know of who seemed to enjoy sex in the last 30 years is Clinton, and look what he got out of it.

Fractious and have no sense of loyalty; will publicly tear out the intestines of those closest to them at the most politically inopportune times. The attention spans of poultry; easily distracted from large, useful goals by pointless minutiae. Not only can’t see the forest for the trees, can’t see the trees for the pine needles. Deserve every bad thing that happens to them because they just can’t get their act together. Too bad those they presume to stand for get royally screwed as well.

Conservatives: Self-hating moral relativists, unless you can convince me that an intellectual class that publicly praises family values but privately engages in sodomy, coke and trophy wives is more aptly described in some other way. Not every conservative is an old wealthy white man on his third wife, but nearly every conservative aspires to be so, which is a real waste of money, youth, race and women. Genuinely fear and hate those who are not “with” them — the sort of people who would rather shit on a freshly-baked cherry pie than share it with someone not of their own tribe.



Newsflash: the sexual revolution is not complete

Personal

Originally posted on Bitch Ph.D.

So here is the biggest, most annoying problem with having a feminist marriage:

No matter what you and your partner have agreed on, other people will cling to their antiquated notions.

It’s the biggest evidence to me that marriage is not just a
contract between two people; it’s also a kind of social contact (for
better or for worse). Like, if you and your partner decide to reverse
conventional gender roles–you work the day job, he stays home with
kids and kitchen–and you are perfectly happy with this arrangement
(ok, reasonably happy). Lovely! You win! You and your partner have done
all the hard work necessary in arriving at this decision, you have had
principled discussions about division of labor, you have made sure that
neither one of you is feeling coerced, that this is how you both want
it to be, blah blah blah and now you can sit back and enjoy your
domestic life. WRONG. Because now you have to deal with constantly
explaining to everyone around you that, “no, this really is what we both
want, no, I am not an emasculating bitch, actually this was his idea,
no really you can ask him, no, he isn’t doing it “for” me, no, we’re
not doing this to “prove” something, really, we are doing this because
it works for both of us, individually and as a couple.”

(click title for more)



Holly throws herself under the alternative fuel bus

Blog Nosh Magazine Politics
Originally Published on June Cleaver Nirvana

Holly has been doing a lot of thinking. Holly has been doing extensive
investigating. Holly finds that the best solution to her problem may be
installing one of these:

Holly has decided that a porta-potty, johnnie-on-the-spot, porta-john may be her only option.

She has decided that this is the location for her new purchase:

Why would Holly who lives in a lovely suburban neighborhood in a house that could (but doesn’t) have a white picket fence with complete indoor plumbing choose to install a porta-potty, johnnie-on-the-spot, porta-john?

(click title for more)



Woe Canada: Patriotism and Political Correctness in the great White North

Blog Nosh Magazine Politics
Originally Published on Blue Like You: Conservative Musings

Today on Canada Day, the Toronto Sun features a debate between Lorrie Goldstein and Paul Berton titled Whoa Canada, which discusses possible reasons for a supposed lack of patriotism among some Canadian demographics.

However, a recent Harris-Decima poll found that a clear majority of Canadians are very proud of their country:

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey asking Canadians
to rank their pride in Canada on a scale of one to 10 found 57 per cent
gave it the highest mark.

Another 25 per cent gave it an eight or a nine, while just 3 per cent ranked their pride lower than a five.

Personally, I can’t think of a country I’d rather live in. However,
there are concerns bubbling under the surface that require our
attention. Jeffrey Simpson’s Globe editorial hones in on some issues that seem to be taboo in Canadian society today:

…Is it boredom, political correctness, entrenched
self-interest, self-satisfaction or moral superiority that creates so
many no-fly zones for debate in this curious country?

(click title for more)